We have not yet chosen the books for September, October and November 2018. Not many could attend at the decision meeting in January so we chose just 6 books. And we planned "biographies" for August 22, but did not define whose biography (Remember last year Oliver Sacks)

It is time to choose three more books. We can use the list which we discussed in February, and also make new proposals. If you have a proposal, please give title and author, an Amazon link, the publication date and length, and write or copy a short review for us.

A review on Amazon
. How different the world must have seemed in the early 18th century, when the principles of Enlightenment were at their peak, and large parts of the map of the world were still black. European scientist had an almost unbound belief in the possibilities of scientific research, and there was plenty to research!

'Measuring the world' captures this era in a beautiful manner, by contrasting two of its giants: the explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) and the mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855). In many ways, two people couldn't be further apart: Gauss was a child prodigy of humble birth (his father wanted him to become a mason as he himself was), Humboldt the younger of two sons in a prominent Pomeranian family (his father was a major in the Prussian army). Gauss was by all accounts a difficult man to live with: a perfectionist, having difficulties establishing relations with other people (including his own children), impatient and restless. By contrast, Humboldt was ever sociable and friendly, the epitome of the gentleman-explorer, used to moving in the highest circles. Humboldt traversed the globe, Gauss explored the world (the universe rather) sitting behind his desk...

And yet, in a bizarre way, as Kehlmann demonstrates in this splendid book, both men (or rather: his fictionalized versions of them) are as different sides of the same coin, and are ultimately 'mere men', as we all are. Ambitious and confident as they may be when young and in the prime of their lives, and there hardly seemed to be limits to what they could do and achieve, as they grow older (and more and more lonely) they are confronted with the same ruminations, doubts and regrets we probably all are: did I make a difference? Have I done right by my children? Should I have been more caring towards my wife?

I enjoyed this book a lot. It's insightful, full of (dry) humour and irony, and utterly charming. Splendid!

Although Humboldt and Gauss were extremely ambitious and highly serious, Kehlmann often presents them humorously. Gauss’s physical complaints and atrocious manners are continually amusing. Humboldt’s resistance to women and unwitting insults to others are equally funny. The scientists’ dialogues with lesser intelligences — and even with each other — often sound like the non sequiturs in “Waiting for Godot.” Kehlmann gives ample credit to his characters’ discoveries — they were two of the most renowned scientists of their time — but his treatment humanizes their authoritarian public personas. Kehlmann includes Gauss’s confusion about statistics and his attraction to spiritualism, and he suggests that Humboldt may have exaggerated several of his exploits. With these not-so-distant mirror characters, Kehlmann usefully reminds us that our own universal geniuses and vaunted measurements of the world will be superseded — and will look comic to people in the next century.

Gesendet: Sonntag, 17. Dezember 2017 um 22:13 Uhr
Von: "bogitruth ." <bogitrue@gmail.com>
An: GrahamTritt <g.tritt@gmx.net>
Betreff: Trojanow book for sophie reading?
Hi Graham
I am reading the latest book of the bestseller german author from bulgarian origin Trojanow, with several publications in english,
His last book Nach der Flucht, is a bestseller in Germany, see link below on a Frankfurter Messe interview...
The boom is very interesting, as it gives the perspective of the refugees, in poetic phrases. He says that everybody having left his home is a sort of a refugee, even if he changes place of living in the same country... I think it very worth a discussion in the sophie club...?
Regards
Stefanhttps://www.zdf.de/kultur/das-blaue-sofa/videos/trojanow-blaues-sofa-12-10-2017-100.html
----------------------------------------https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilija_Trojanow
Trojanow was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1965. In 1971 his family fled Bulgaria through Yugoslavia and Italy to Germany, where they received political asylum. In 1972 the family travelled on to Kenya, where Ilija's father had obtained a job as engineer. With one interruption from 1977–1981, Ilija Trojanow lived in Nairobi until 1984, and attended the German School Nairobi. After a stay in Paris, he studied law and ethnology at Munich University from 1985 to 1989. He interrupted these studies to found Kyrill-und-Method-Verlag in 1989, and after that Marino-Verlag in 1992, both of which specialised in African literature. In 1999 Trojanow moved to Mumbai and became intensely involved with Indian life and culture. He has lived in Cape Town, returned to Germany (Mainz), and then to Austria, where he currently resides in Vienna.
English translationshttps://www.amazon.de/Ilija%20Trojanow/e/B001HQ1LMW/ref=la_B001HQ1LMW_fb?rh=i%3Aenglish-books,p_82:B001HQ1LMW
o Custodians of the Sun
o Along the Ganges, translation by Ranjit Hoskote, Penguin Books India & Haus Publishing, 2005
o Mumbai to Mecca, London, 2007, Haus Publishing
o The Collector of Worlds, London, 2008
o The Lamentations of Zeno, translation by Philip Boehm of Eis Tau, Verso Books, New York, 2016http://trojanow.de/werke/buecher/http://trojanow.de/werke/essays/
-------------------------https://www.amazon.com/Ilija-Trojanow/e/B001HQ1LMWhttps://www.amazon.com/Collector-Worlds-Richard-Francis-Burton/dp/0061351946/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Collector of Worlds (The story of explorer Richard Francis Burton)
Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5t_KJ0zdLA
A stunning fictionalized account of the infamous life of british colonial officer and translator sir richard francis burton
A nineteenth-century British colonial officer with a rare ability to assimilate into indigenous cultures, Sir Richard Francis Burton was an obsessive traveler whose journeys took him from England to British India, Arabia, and on a quest for the source of the Nile River in Africa. He learned more than twenty languages, translated The Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, and took part in the pilgrimage to Mecca, in addition to writing several travel books.
This elegant novel tells the story of Burton's adventures in British West India, his experience on the hajj to Mecca, and his exploration of East Africa. In each section, perspective shifts between Burton and the voices of those men he encounters along the way: his Indian servant recounts his travails with Burton to a scribe; the qadi, the governor, and the shari in Mecca investigate Burton's hajj; and Sidi Mubarak Bombay, Burton's African guide, shares his story with friends in Zanzibar. This remarkable con-centric narrative examines the underbelly of colonialism while offering a breathtaking tour of the nineteenth century's most stunning landscapes.
The Collector of Worlds won the fiction prize of Germany's Leipzig Book Fair in 2006 and the Berlin Literary Award, in addition to being a runaway bestseller in Germany.
o Paperback: 464 pages
o Publisher: Ecco; Reprint edition (January 19, 2010)
o Language: English
o ISBN-10: 0061351946
o ISBN-13: 978-0061351945
-------------------------
Along the Ganges 266 pageshttps://www.amazon.com/Along-Ganges-Iliya-Trojanow/dp/1906598274/https://www.amazon.com/Along-Ganges-Armchair-Traveller-Trojanow/dp/1906598916/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Part adventure story, travel log, and cultural tour it is a great book. It gives the reader the chance to follow along on a trip that very few could take on their own. Mixed in with the description of the trip is a narrative on the mythology associated with the river. Lots of fun to read.
o Paperback: 220 pages
o Publisher: Haus Publishing (May 24, 2011)
o Language: English
o ISBN-10: 1906598916
o ISBN-13: 978-1906598914
-------------------------https://www.amazon.com/Mumbai-Mecca-Pilgrimage-Sites-Islam/dp/1904950299/
In early 2003, Ilija Trojanow -- originally from Bulgaria, but then living in Mumbai -- undertook the Hajj. MUMBAI TO MECCA is his account of the pilgrimage. As the fifth pillar of Islam, the Hajj is a lifetime objective for over 1.5 billion of this planet's people. For someone like me (a non-Moslem), the Hajj is an impossibility. Reading the book, therefore, gave me a glimpse and rudimentary understanding, otherwise unavailable to me, of an event central to the lives of so many of my fellow world-citizens.
o Hardcover: 215 pages
o Publisher: Haus Publishing; 1st edition edition (February 1, 2007)
o Language: English
o ISBN-10: 1904950299
o ISBN-13: 978-1904950295
-------------------------
Nach der Fluchthttps://literaturblatt.ch/ilija-trojanow-nach-der-flucht-s-fischer/
audio interview https://www.mdr.de/kultur/videos-und-audios/audio-radio/sendung-233550_zc-13255ee1_zs-781b7c38.htmlhttps://www.amazon.de/Nach-Flucht-Ilija-Trojanow/dp/3103972962